Tag: books

Macmillan’s “Mastering” Series: Language Learning Stalwarts of the 80s and 90s

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You might remember that I was reminiscing about the forgotten Made Simple series the other week. It led me to recall another language learning series of old, and one I often mix up with Made Simple, I must admit. It’s Macmillan’s Mastering … series, another once much more familiar name in the self-paced and further ed market.

It’s not surprising that they sometimes merge into Made Simple in my language book memory. The book format itself was similar – a somewhat taller paperback, with that thick, off-white paper that feels really satisfying to turn (and crease, for fellow page corner turner-downers like me). Even the covers features that black, yellow and red of their Made Simple cousins. Like those books, these feel like grown-up courses, and, were likewise staples at night classes in the 80s and 90s.

The Mastering library overlapped with Made Simple in topics, but with a couple of important differences. For one thing, the series contained an intermediate stage for the mainstream languages; Mastering German 2, for example, is a very decent second-tier course that picks up where the first leaves off.

Impression of Mastering French I (Macmillan)

Mastering … take a slightly broader path with its titles, too. Mastering Arabic, for example, is one of the few really accessible, off-the-shelf courses in the language from the time. Perhaps that’s the reason it’s one of the titles that’s still very much with us; now acquired by Bloomsbury, Mastering Arabic continues as a respected and well-used course book today.

That’s not to say the old ones aren’t worth a look, too. And you can often pick them up on eBay for just a couple of pounds – you know we like a bargain at Polyglossic!

The Made Simple Series : Language Learning Blasts from the Past

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While helping my uncle clear out some old boxes lately, I came across a proper forgotten classic of language learning: the Made Simple series.

I knew it as soon as I spied the familiar black, red and yellow paperback – it was an early nineties edition of Spanish Made Simple, chunky, well-worn, and still with my teenage pencil notes in it. I’d passed it on to my globetrotting uncle ahead of a trip he made to South America, so it had done some serious miles.

Spanish Made Simple, Third Edition - cover impression

Made Simple was a series familiar to many who took evening classes back then. And with its slightly polytechnic-esque look and feel, it sat naturally alongside Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Hugo In Three Months and language course stalwarts, keeping up but not quite displacing them. They covered the usual mainstream languages – French, German and Spanish – but also featured other self-teach titles from Electronics to Philosophy. 

And they feel solid, with a no-fluff, down-to-brass-tacks grammar-vocab-reading model. There’s a real ‘adult ed’ feel to them, which is probably why I loved them as a language-obsessed teen. They just felt grown-up.

Made Simple… Made Disappear?

Despite the Spanish edition making it to 2.5 million copies in print, the series never held the primacy that rivals like Teach Yourself and Colloquial hung onto. Other series expanded into more languages, for example, and shifting formats – especially the rise of audio media – made keeping courses like these a real specialist undertaking. In fact, they did manage to cling on in a modern incarnation by Penguin Random House, with fresh, up-to-date jackets. But those original, ubiquitous Made Simple language titles drifted into obscurity, and you’ll only spot their tricolore jackets on the shelves of second-hand booksellers these days.

That said, being obscure and forgotten doesn’t mean being obsolete. You will know, by now, my take on old language learning gems! For those of us who cut our language learning teeth before apps and streaks, they’re a charming reminder that all you really need is a pencil, a bit of patience, and a good old-fashioned tome.

So with that, consider the original Made Simple series unearthed and celebrated once again in this post. If you’re hankering after a new angle on your language, those old Made Simple volumes are still well worth a look!

Summer language learning - a book on the grass.

My Language Learning Life : July 2025 Update

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So the summer hols are here – and what better time to take stock of my own polyglot progress? July’s been solid – not life-changing, but the kind of steady language learning momentum that actually gets you places over time.

Here’s where things stand.

Greek: From Textbooks to TikTok

Greek continues to be my most active language learning project right now. I’m keeping up weekly iTalki sessions with my usual tutor, grinding through Τα λέμε Ελληνικά – a B1-B2 course that’s about as exciting as it sounds but gets the job done. Grammar drills aren’t everybody’s cup of tea (well – they are mine, actually), but they work.

The real fun’s been on social media. @greekoutwithmaria is gold – idiomatic, useful Greek with clear explanations. I’ve compiled a whole list of other useful Greek accounts here if you want more where that came from!

To not get lost in the scroll, I dip in occasionally and bookmark stuff as I go. Then, I make sure to have a weekly session where I actually do something with it – vocab decks, Anki cards, and the like. It’s a system that’s added some real conversational polish to my Greek.

German: Going Old School Again

I’ve been gravitating back to actual books to maintain my German lately. There’s something about physical pages that screens can’t replicate – maybe it’s the weight, maybe it’s not getting distracted by notifications every five minutes.

I threw myself at two very different reads this month. First up is Torsten Sträter’s Es ist nie zu spät, unpünktlich zu sein, which serves up observational comedy that’s heavy on dad jokes but light on mental effort. It makes perfect train reading when your brain’s already fried from the day. Then there’s Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which I’m finally tackling after seeing it on every German language and literature syllabus for years. And it’s a thoroughly readable classic – there’s something very soothing about it as an adventure into the soul.

A little light Readly

Readly, the multi-magazine app, still gets plenty of action on long journeys. I’ve been reading Men’s Health Germany and Sweden’s Språktidningen (pop linguistics in Swedish – a real treat) regularly. Saying that, the platform recently axed most of their Norwegian titles, which is annoying thanks to shifting licensing deals.

As for target language reading of any kind the golden rule applies: read what you’d actually want to read, just in another language.

Life’s too short for boring books in any tongue.

Podcasts: When Your Day Job Meets Your Hobby

I’ve started listening to Der KI Podcast, which covers AI developments in chatty, accessible German. It’s the perfect overlap with both my work and PhD research, so it basically counts as multitasking disguised as language practice. That’s really the sweet spot we’re always looking for: finding content that ticks multiple boxes, rather than forcing language learning into spaces where it doesn’t naturally belong.

Side Quests: Persian, Albanian, and Library Rabbit Holes

Joy of joys – my university library recently added the entire Routledge Colloquial series digitally, which has proven dangerous territory for someone with my particular brand of linguistic OCD. My latest obsession has been Persian, which I’ve been exploring through both the recently updated Routledge title and an ancient Teach Yourself Persian volume that’s pure grammar-translation throwback. You can sense the layers of metaphorical dust on it, but I genuinely love the methodical approach of dissembling languages during the learning process to see how they tick.

Albanian also got a brief look-in after Dua Lipa’s Wembley extravaganza sent me down a cultural rabbit hole. Yes, continuing that trend of letting pop culture determine my dabbling directions. I don’t have any grand plans with it, just some structured curiosity that might lead somewhere (or probably not).

Trips: Lyon and Dublin in Linguistic Technicolor

I took two quick city breaks this month to Lyon and Dublin, which meant the usual soundtrack of overheard conversations and multilingual signage. Nothing was particularly structured – just casual linguistic tourism really. It was great to be the designated restaurant orderer in France, though – that feeling of achievement and usefulness we linguaphiles yearn for!

The Verdict

So that was the past couple of months: steady progress rather than dramatic breakthroughs. Greek keeps moving forward, German feels natural and flowing, podcasts are doing their job, and my side projects are staying appropriately peripheral (but very interesting).

It might not be Instagram-worthy content, but it’s sustainable, and that matters more in the long run than any flashy sprint.

How was your language learning month? Let us know in the comments!

Advert for Assimil language learning courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Selling Language Learning : Two Hundred Years of Promises

A lot has changed in contemporary language learning and teaching in a pretty short space of time. Anyone over 30 might still remember two distinct types of courses being sold on bookshop shelves – the traditional grammar-translation type, and those following a newer communicative approach.

The former is all about rules and drills, while the focus of the latter is language skills for real-world situations. In short, book language versus people language. There’s merit to both, of course – I get a lot from course books both old (sometimes very old) and new. But as the communicative approach is now such a natural first step for many, it’s easy to forget how recently it arose and became mainstream.

In my travels through the British Newspaper Archive, I come across countless ads and reviews for language course books through the decades. Of course, they’re almost all in that rules and drills vein. Writers were constantly coming up with the latest and greatest new system for ‘mastering’ a language. The Victorians seemed particularly obsessed with ‘system’ and ‘mastery’, and that fixation comes through in so many of the titles from that era.

So, here’s a selection of recent finds, spanning 150 years or so. What’s familiar – and what has changed?

A Practical German Grammar (1825)

Advert for "German Grammar" by John Rowbotham in Bell's Weekly Messenger, 1825

Advert for “German Grammar” by John Rowbotham in Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 1825

Two hundred years ago, German learners might have been tempted by Rowbotham’s A Practical German Grammar. There’s already an eye to later Teach Yourself courses, as the book is useful to “Private Students” too. And the biggest selling point? The author is “an Englishman” who knows well “those points which are attended with difficulty to his countrymen“. There’s nothing like solidarity!

Hebrew Verbs Simplified (1852)

Advert for "Hebrew Verbs Simplified" by Tresham D. Gregg in The Morning Herald (London), 1852

Advert for “Hebrew Verbs Simplified” by Tresham D. Gregg in The Morning Herald (London), 1852

The 19th Century saw the idea of efficiency and system fetishised to a fault, and you find simplified titles at every turn. There’s a drive to divide knowledge up into orderly chunks so that mastery – a Victorian fixation – is in the reach of everyone. This volume on Hebrew Verbs from 1852 is a lovely example of it. Learn it here and it will be “scarcely forgotten“!

An Easy And Rapid Method for Learning French Verbs (1881)

Advert for "An Easy and Rapid Method for Learning French Regular and Irregular Verbs" by A. E. Ragon in the Dundee Courier, 1881

Advert for “An Easy and Rapid Method for Learning French Regular and Irregular Verbs” by A. E. Ragon in the Dundee Courier, 1881

We have yet another system described in this short 1881 newspaper review, this time for French verbs. It’s easy! And it’s rapid! And you can sense the thrill of the efficiency-seekers, setting the messy world of language in order. It’s nothing new, of course; plenty of modern courses promise to simplify difficult paradigms. But the idea is so bound up with the Victorian ideal of progress and scientific understanding, that there’s a real feeling of Zeitgeist about these pieces.

Italian Conversational Course (1870)

Review for "Italian Conversational Course" by Giovanni Toscani in the Educational Times, 1870

Review for “Italian Conversational Course” by Giovanni Toscani in the Educational Times, 1870

Learning Italian in 1870? You might like to try Giovanni Toscani’s Italian Conversational Course. In the 19th Century spirit of logic and order, it’s organised perhaps a little differently from courses you might be used to. Namely, you’ll focus on verbs first, before moving onto nouns. You have to wonder how ‘conversational’ you’d be after only the first few chapters (“well, I can say I want but I can’t say what I want…”). Saying that, most of the Polish grammar I know is from a 1948 course that only taught neuter nouns for a surprisingly high number of chapters…

Hugo’s In Three Months (1957)

Advert for Hugo language courses in Bookseller, 1957

Advert for Hugo language courses in Bookseller, 1957

Skipping forward to the mid-20th Century, things start to look a little more familiar, even if the language sounds old-fashioned. Hugo – a language learning brand you’ll still see in bookshops today – ran this substantial ad piece in 1957. As a testament to the books’ popularity, the ad tells us that they’re now available as hardbacks (“bound in boards“), and available for a mere seven shillings and sixpence. That’s a bargain for language learning without a master!

Assimil Languages (1959)

Advert for Assimil language courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Advert for Assimil language courses in The Scotsman, 1959

Another evergreen language brand many will be familiar with from modern editions, Assimil was well on the game in 1959. And these courses were fully multimedia, at least in the format of the day – they came with a set of “gramophone records” to speed learners along the path of their three-month journey.  It’s that magic three months, again – both Hugo and Assimil were making that claim back in the 1950s, and it’s one you still see in today’s Hugo titles. The Victorians weren’t the only ones selling the simple system for mastery; it’s a tantalising (and book-selling idea) right into our own era.

Exploring the history of language learning seems like a tangential side-quest for the language learner, but it’s such a worthy one, if only for the social history of it all. The ideas that drove us, the tools we used to realise those ideas – its reflections are in each of these ads.

And sometimes, it’s surprising how little we’ve changed.

Parcels flying over from Germany - from Momox perhaps?

Meet Momox – German Language Materials on the Cheap

You might already know that I’m a language learning eBay bargain hunter. The site is a goldmine of course book treasures. But if you’re after German realia in particular for your teaching and learning, the Momox store could be even more of an Aladdin’s cave.

Momox is one of the big used media sellers on eBay. If you’ve bought popular items on eBay in the past, you may well already know them. They deal in all the usual mainstream books, CDs and DVDs.

But there’s one key difference: Momox is actually a German storefront. Being headquartered in Berlin, they have an immense catalogue of German-language materials. And better still, all that still qualifies for their standard free delivery charge, making it a really affordable way to buy your authentic materials auf Deutsch.

Momox Merch

One particularly rich seam of goodies available for a bargain on Momox is reality TV merch. In terms of language learning, you’ll know that I rate following a reality franchise as a super fun way to engage with your target language country.

Personally, Germany’s take on Pop Idol, Deutschland sucht den Superstar, has been a favourite of mine since I excitedly discovered it in the early noughties. Back then, I had to wait for a trip abroad to grab the CDs and DVDs. Now, there’s a raft of Deutschland sucht den Superstar memorabilia on Momox, all at super cheap used prices! For fans of the rival Voice of Germany, you can even pick up the console game from the series. Hours of fun.

And there are books, of course – loads of them. For easy target language reading, all the big kids’ series are all there, like Harry Potter – just search “Harry Potter und” for all the German ones. They’re a lot cheaper than buying them from a UK-based store.

It’s all the kind of thing that would have made me giddy in my early language learning years (and kept the postman busy). If you’re a German learner, then Momox might be just what you need to stay plugged into German pop culture – without breaking the bank.

The cover of Scottish Gaelic - A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge)

Scottish Gaelic : A Comprehensive Grammar Released This Week!

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It’s a moment Gaelic learners and general language aficionados have been waiting a long time for. Routledge has finally added the language to its Comprehensive Grammar series!

Released this week, the new reference work by Edinburgh University’s Professor William Lamb fills a real gap on the Gaelic bookshelf. Learners looking for a modern guide have had a much narrower choice of much briefer handbooks, such as Michel Byrne’s excellent, but rather slim Gràmar na Gàidhlig. Either that, or explore the  ambitious descriptive grammars of old, like Shaw’s 18th-Century Analysis of the Gaelic Language, which is fascinating, but not particularly contemporary (although you know I love an ancient language manual).

The new Routledge tome weighs in at a hefty 580 pages, and looks to be an exhaustive tour of the contemporary language. It’s also very reasonably priced at around the £30 mark (compare, for example, the price of the Swedish counterpart!). If you’re a student, then you can get an additional 25% off that by buying directly from Routledge via a student discount site like Student Beans.

Suas leis a’ Ghàidhlig!

Language learning - making sense of the wall of words.

Playing with Words: How ‘The Language Game’ Can Boost Your Learning

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It doesn’t happen too often, but now and again I come across a linguistics book that has some immediately liftable, transferable insights for language learners, both formal linguists and otherwise. So it was with The Language Game, my star read over a quiet Christmas up in Aberdeenshire this year.

As polyglots and language enthusiasts, we often get lost in the intricate maze of vocabulary lists, grammar rules, and perfect pronunciation. We diligently chase language as a concrete, unchanging entity, forgetting the exhilarating dance of meaning that is the true essence of language.

But what if we’ve been approaching language learning from a slightly skewed perspective?

The Language Game, Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater’s paradigm-changing exploration of the improvisational nature of language, suggests that maybe we have. They argue that, much like life itself, language is a constant improvisation and renegotiation of meaning. From the ever-shifting, multifaceted definitions of words like light and live (just think of all the different, often tenuously connected things they have come to mean), language isn’t a fixed system, but a dynamic game we play. At any point, we can recruit existing items in novel ways that suit our immediate needs. This game relies almost completely on context, arising from our in-the-moment desire to communicate rather than adhering to strict, unchanging rules.

What does this mean for us second (third, fourth etc.) language learners? It reminds us that language isn’t a static mountain to be conquered, but a playful river we navigate as it continues to change. The path forward lies not in rote memorisation, but in embracing the creative process of meaning-making in the moment.

Lessons from The Language Game

The Language Game is a compelling, accessibly written book and an easy read even if you don’t have a background in formal linguistics. I really recommend you dip in yourself to benefit from the insights inside it. In the meantime, here are the main polyglot takeaways that I found beneficial – all great rules to learn by as a foreign language enthusiast.

Meaning isn’t set in stone

Ease off on exact dictionary definitions and rigid rules. Focus on using words in context, adapting to the ever-evolving “language games” around you, consuming as much contemporary media as possible.

Context is King

Don’t downplay the role of setting in what words and sentences mean. If something doesn’t make sense, pull back to see the bigger picture, and have a stab at guessing from the context. Always close attention to the social landscape where language unfolds. Words are chameleons, their meaning shifting with the hues of the situation.

Mastery takes repetition

Even the expectation that toddlers incorporate ten new words perfectly into the mental lexicon is on shaky ground. Investigations into the infamous ‘cheem’ experiments reveal that kids grasp new concepts quickly, but lose them quickly without reinforcement.

Let go of the pressure to “gobble up” language in this way. Language use isn’t simply ‘learn it once and remember it forever’. It builds gradually, layer by layer, through repeated exposure and playful experimentation. Fleeting memory may fades, but repeated use cements meaning.

The Language Game is Just Charades

Gestures, context, and playful guessing guide our understanding. Just as children infer meaning from context, so too do we adults when we play charades. The metaphor of charades – using whatever is at hand to produce meaning in the mind of another – extends to everyday communication, too.

Embrace the guessing game – it’s a powerful learning tool. Guessing is good – don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith with a new word. Use it, even if you’re unsure.

Remember, language is a game, and games are meant to be fun. So let’s play!

The Language Game by Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater is available as a paperback and Kindle book from Amazon.

Language learning - making sense of the wall of words.

Language Learning Treats 2023 – for Christmas and Beyond!

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That rolled around quickly again, didn’t it?

2023 has been a year of language ups and downs. Amidst some sadder news, like the mothballing of old courses, and language department struggles at leading universities, there was a lot to celebrate, too. AI has gone big in the language learning world, supporting learners everywhere for free. And the non-Duolingo crowd of apps has only got stronger (continual love to Duolingo when you control the owl, of course). Offerings like Lingvist and Lingodeer now give learners more choice than ever.

It’s all got me a bit nostalgic for my own year of language learning treats. I’ve enjoyed so much of what’s been on offer this year, free and otherwise. It’s only proven to me what a well-supported bunch we are in the polyglot world. And long may that continue.

Anyway, here are a few 2023 treats that were right up my street. I hope you like them, too!

Speak Gaelic!

Speak Gaelic learners have great cause for cheer this season. The BBC’s vast new offering for Scottish Gaelic learners has been a shot in the arm for learners of this beautiful, precious Celtic language, and goes from strength to strength. It’s filled a gap left by the equally excellent, but ageing Speaking Our Language, and it seems determined to build on that heritage in a big way.

We’ve not only got multiple series of CEFR-levelled TV programmes, but also an excellent activity website, a podcast, and now, a series of course books. They even manage to be entertaining, thanks to the infectious cheer of Joy Dunlop and humour of Gaelic’s social media man, Calum MacIlleathain. That’s no mean feat for a language course. Legends, the lot of them.

Even if you have a passing interest in Gaelic, check the series out. It’s a masterclass in how to support a learning community.

Éditions Ellipses

The French educational publisher Éditions Ellipses was my big surprise of 2023. Ever a fan of triangulating my languages, I happened upon their language learning catalogue in France this year. They cover over 20 of them, supporting grammar, vocabulary and cultural learning. Well worth a look if you have French and fancy using it to learn other languages.

I bought a couple of good ones in Lyon, but they’re also available on Amazon: I particularly rate Petites histoires pour apprendre le grec moderne if you’re working on Greek, and Vox allemand for more advanced Germanists.

AI Platforms (LLMs)

I alluded to it in the intro, and it’s impossible to discuss learning in 2023 without a mention for AI. That’s Large Language Models to you and I in the know, as they’re appropriately named – and they’re content whizzes, making for a perfect partner with language learning. I spent so much time bending them to my polyglot will this year, that I wrote a book on using them, AI for Language Learners. Obviously, I would well recommend that as a Christmas treat for any language lover! 😉

The greatest thing about AI for languages is that it’s free to build into your learning routine. Microsoft’s Bing chat is now available to all, and is as good as the best paid models right now. If you want to have a play, check out my articles on creating your own Assimil-style language learning texts and creating Anki decks using AI for starters. Once you get stuck in, you won’t be able to stop!

Language Learning : The Return of …

For me, 2023 continued the personal movie that is French : The Sequel. After abandoning French pretty much immediately after school, it’s slipped back into my life almost accidentally. For one reason or another (mainly music), I keep finding myself in France.

And it’s been a voyage (or three) of rediscovery.

It’s led, of course, to those Éditions Ellipses surprises in Parisian and Lyonnaise bookshops. It’s been such a pleasure, reconnecting… I’m not sure my French will ever be that good, but it’s fun trying! And it just confirms again that sometimes, you don’t always choose the language.

The language chooses you.

What have your 2023 language learning highlights been? Let us know in the comments!

 

Neon books

Éditions Ellipses : Language Learning Find of the Month!

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I’m back to my short hop travel habits this month, with language recces in Germany and France. And, as ever, a trip to a target language country is a trip to hunt books for some triangulation fun!

You might already guess that the initial objective of my bookshop hunt was Assimils. These (large) pocket-sized paperbacks have achieved an almost mythical status amongst polyglots. And not without good reason; the parallel text method is solid. I’ve experimented a lot with recreating the format via AI recently, but it’s great to find the originals on bookshop shelves.

And I did spot a good few Assimil editions, in fact. Sadly, not as many as I have on previous occasions, and also not many of the more affordable standalone book editions. More and more often, it seems that French and German bookshops are stocking the much more expensive book-CD sets. Maybe when I’m feeling a bit more flush, I thought.

Éditions Ellipses

But take heart. In much greater abundance, in shiny, colourful, school textbook style jackets, I found another rich seam: Éditions Ellipses. It turns out the publishing house is a staple of francophone tuition. They have books across the subjects, not least languages. And languages aren’t an afterthought, either – they have course books in over twenty of them.

What I loved about the Éditions Ellipses books I leafed through was the practical / vocational slant. Many are geared up to accreditation across the skills range. They’re all levelled using the Council of Europe CEFR labels. And the company appears to be putting titles out so regularly, that the material in them is bang up-to-date.

In the end, I plumped for two Éditions Ellipses francophone language learning titles. The first is one of two ‘Greek through short stories’ books they do, Petites histoires pour apprendre le grec moderne. I went for the B1-B2 book, frankly thrilled to find anything for Greek learners around that level. The books are a little like the “Short Stories In…” series, but so much more comprehensive, with extensive vocabulary, grammar and practice exercises.

The second one I treated myself to was Deutschland Aktuell. L’Allemand d’aujourd’hui. It’s a more advanced, thematic text, using texts as training models for talking about contemporary German topics. I’ve been wanting to revive my not-practised-enough German for a while, but couldn’t find much in the way of engaging resources for B2-C1 in the anglophone market. This Éditions Ellipses text was just the ticket.

So now I’m home, with two wonderful new course books for some systematic learning at a level that’s appropriate to me, and with engaging, up-to-date content. If you, too, are struggling for non-anglophone language learning materials and have a workable level of French, do check out Éditions Ellipses – there are some gems to be found.

A book in the Philips UV-C Disinfection Box.

Extras for the Book Cleaning Cupboard

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Giving second-hand bargains a new lease of life is one of my favourite things about my language book obsession. For a start, it’s an accessible hobby. Like the books, most of the tools and techniques for book restoration are extremely cheap. Some, like UV disinfection boxes, are less so, but still no longer prohibitively expensive.

Community support is a big factor, too. There’s an almost inexhaustible pool of tips out there. Through scouring the gamut of book-lovers’ websites, Reddits, TikToks and more, I’ve added another few everyday essentials to the book care list.

Trigger warning – there will be a lot of talk about grime here! The upside?

It becomes clear how easy it is to deal with it.

Greaseproof Paper

Sometimes you’ll come across a page or two that needs a bit of extra treatment. As with glossy book covers and edges, you can target stains or blemishes with surgical spirit to gently clean and sanitise. But if you need to go a little harder on a page or two, slip a piece of greaseproof paper beneath it. That way, you won’t be too rough on its neighbours as well.

Art Gum

No, art gum isn’t glue, a I thought when I first happened upon it mentioned by a book fixer. It’s actually a very gentle kind of erasing rubber. It’s a popular choice amongst artists as, unlike the school pencil case alternatives, it doesn’t disintegrate with use, and so leaves no grainy residue. That makes it handy not only for rubbing pencil and pen marks from book pages, but also other bits and pieces that shouldn’t be there (food stains, the odd dead fly – seriously, it’s best not to think about what, just how to get rid and forget!).

Art gum barely any more expensive than a standard one either. Faber-Castell do a great malleable version which costs under a fiver.

Freezer Bags (and Freezer!)

OK, a freezer isn’t exactly cheap. That said, of course, it’s pretty likely that there’s already one at home. Freezing a book (in a protective freezer or ziplock bag, of course) may seem a strange course of action. But it’s an excellent way to dry and loosen any grime or residue that’s stuck to pages. Blitz a book with cold, and it’ll only take a blunt knife to dislodge any undesirable blobs. Again, best not to ponder… Just act, and those pages will be as new.

Please don’t let all this talk of mystery stains put you off, though. It’s very rare that you’ll have anything to worry about from the biggest and the best second-hand booksellers out there. It’s just nice to have strategies for the odd stubborn case.

After all, doesn’t every book deserve a second chance?